Mukesh Ambani’s Kingdom

ABOUT

Mukesh Ambani is a business tycoon in India. He’s the chairman, managing director, and the largest shareholder (with a 48% stake) of Reliance Industries, an Indian-headquartered oil and gas giant. With a net worth of US$53.1 billion, Ambani has been named the richest man in India for 12 years in a row and has recently taken the crown for Asia’s richest man.

Reliance Industries is now a Fortune 500 company worth US$100 billion and is one of the most valuable companies in India.

Undeniably, Jio Platforms, the telecom and digital arm of Reliance Industries, is the company’s fastest-growing business unit. With over 388 million subscribers, it’s taking India by storm.

Launched in 2016, Jio Platforms provides free voice calls and 4G networks with data tariffs below US$1 per gigabyte, the lowest data tariff in the world. This was a game changer that brought India into a data revolution – enabling connections in untapped rural markets – and became a catalyst for emerging businesses.

The increased access is bringing millions of Indians online, carrying an economic opportunity that is expected to be worth US$50 billion.

In the past four weeks, Jio has attracted four key investments, raising a total of US$8.9 billion. Following Facebook’s multibillion-dollar investment in April, the company began testing a grocery shopping feature on Facebook’s WhatsApp. It was reported that the two firms have plans to build a WeChat-like super app for India that will empower nearly 30 million Indian kirana stores (mom and pop shops).

From 2018 to 2019, Reliance Industries Limited made nearly 49 mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, and joint venture deals globally.

Apart from the list above, Reliance has also made significant investments in global tech startups such as Den, Hathway, Eros International, Edcast, KareXpert Technologies, Vakt Holdings Limited, Indiavidual Learning Pvt. Ltd., Radisys Corp., Videonetics, Kai OS Technologies, and SkyTran Inc. It also bought out iconic British toy maker Hamleys in a deal worth over 67.9 million pounds or around US$83.1 million.

WHY IT MATTERS

Understanding Mukesh Ambani is not only about knowing who the richest man in Asia is, but it also involves learning about his background and home country.

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